Model Airplanes

For one example, the DJI Inspire 1 remains one of the most popular unmanned aircraft systems on the market for photography and videography, and, like all quadcopters, it relies on four motors, each with its own electronic speed controller, wiring to connect those components to the rest of the system, and a propeller, all of which represent single points of potential failure. Each electric motor is indispensable—the aircraft will fall out of control if any motor fails in flight—and few of the many such motors tracked to date have demonstrated longevity beyond 200 hours, on average requiring replacement after about 30 or 40 hours of flight time, said Tony Pucciarella, director of operations at the University of Maryland’s UAS Test Site and the founder of AlarisPro, an online service for unmanned aircraft fleet management and predictive maintenance.

Over the past four years, AlarisPro has accumulated data from users that offers insight into how long critical components can be expected to last, about 100,000 hours of component flight time and counting across a range of brands and models.

“We have seen a lot of motors fail,” Pucciarella said.

AlarisPro is in essence a database management tool, but the value to users goes beyond the simple, easy-to-use interface (which Pucciarella demonstrated in an online presentation for AOPA) with which a pilot can log a flight in a few seconds. By tracking the time clocked on each component in the system, and when each component fails, or is replaced for other

Article source: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/march/05/guessing-when-your-drone-will-die

Jim Cooper builds and flies rockets as a hobby he has enjoyed for a quarter of a century.

Gale Rose

Lots of people have hobbies where they can relax and take it easy. Jim Cooper’s hobby is more of an adrenaline rush that involves fuel that can explode and contacting the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to do his thing.

Cooper is a rocket man who likes to build and fly model rockets. He has been launching rockets since 1992.

“It’s something different. I enjoy getting out of the house. I get to meet a lot of nice people and make new friends,” Cooper said.

Cooper, who is 72-years-old, has been doing this for 30 years off-and-on and been a serious rocketeer for 25 years. He has been a certified rocketeer at Level 1 since 1996.

His interest in rockets started 25 years ago when his daughter had a rocket project in School. She got an Estes Rocket kit and Cooper lent a hand to get everything put together. Cooper thought the project was kind of cool and he started working on his own projects. Cooper’s son Chuck also got involved through a Pratt County 4-H Club and won the state fair rocket competition three years in a row. That involvement really pushed Cooper into rocketry.

Like any hobby, it can be as expensive as the person wants it to be. One of his rockets cost about $450. On the high end of rocketry, it can get up to $4,000 to build

Article source: http://www.pratttribune.com/news/20180306/rocket-man-jim-cooper-enjoys-rocket-hobby

Let’s say you’re a muscular fashion designer who wants to show off your latest work and photograph models frolicking in your designs. What location do you choose? Paris? Rome? The Caribbean?

Nah, you pick a tiny country run by a fascist dictator. And better yet, one whose government is teetering on the brink of a violent overthrow.

That’s the premise of Hired to Kill, a 1990 action movie that’s recently been released on Blu-ray. A band of special-ops mercenaries uses this flimsy undercover plan to sneak into the fictitious country of Cypra. They include a band of six females trained as commandos while posing as fashion models. They’re led by a large bodybuilder Frank Ryan (Brian Thompson) pretending to be the fashion designer presenting his new collection. Their mission is to get cozy with the country’s sleazy leader and swat him like a blood-sucking mosquito, which will help the local revolutionaries take back control of the country.

Sound like a believable plan to you?

Nope, me neither. But, I supposed weirder things have happened in real life.

“Their mission…get cozy with the country’s sleazy leader and swat him like a blood-sucking mosquito…”

Sure, we’re not supposed to take any of this seriously — and believe me, I can’t. But it’s hard to tell exactly what this movie is supposed to be. Is it a silly

Article source: http://filmthreat.com/reviews/hired-to-kill/

Dassault released details on its newest business jet, the Falcon 6X, during a recent day-long technical briefing. The latest model is a replacement for the 5X, a project canceled due to multiple delays in the development of its proposed Snecma Silvercrest engines. The 6X will have Pratt Whitney Canada PW812D (“D” for Dassault) engines. The 13,000- to 14,000-pound-thrust PW800 family has logged more than 20,000 test hours. It has also been selected to power the Gulfstream G500, with the PurePower PW814GA, and the G600 with the PW815GA.

“I had no choice [but] to stop the 5X program and find the best possible engine,” chairman and CEO Eric Trappier told reporters gathered in the company’s Le Bourget hangar, where he unveiled a large model of the 6X. He revealed that in 2015 and 2016 Dassault engineers began developing a Plan B for the Falcon 5X when the Silvercrest engine started experiencing problems with its high-pressure compressor. As the troubles intensified, the company took the opportunity to design an aircraft with more range and more space. Olivier Villa, Dassault’s senior vice president of civil aircraft, told BJT sister publication Aviation International News, “We talked with Pratt Whitney Canada, and they modified their engine somewhat for us. And we adapted the airplane to match the engine.” 

The engines are far from the only change. The new twinjet will have a 20-inch-larger cabin, enabling either a larger aft lounge area or a choice of larger forward galley or a crew rest area. The 6X will

Article source: https://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/dassault-unveils-falcon-6x